filial and of the right strain if Love be not its Companion Fear of punishment shews that you love your natural selves but it shews not that you love God and are true-hearted to him The Devils fear and tremble but they do not Love It is Love and and not Fear that is the Byas the Inclination and as I may say the Nature of the will of man By his Love it is that you must know what the man is The Philosopher saith Such as a man is such is his end which is all one as to say Such as a man is such is his Love You may Fear a thing at the same time when you hate it and it 's too common to have some hatred mixt with Fear You may be as much against God and his holy waies when Fear only drives you to some kind of religiousness as others are that scarce meddle with Religion at all The first thing that God looks at is what you would do and the next is what you do If you do it but had rather leave it undone you lose your reward and God will take it as if you had not done it For it was not you that did it if you did it not from Love but it was Fear that dwelleth in you God takes mens hearty Desires and Will instead of the Deed where they have not power to fulfill it But he never took the bare Deed instead of the Will A blockish kind of worship consisting in outward actions without the heart is fit to be given to a wooden god a sensless Idol but the true and living God abhorres it He is a Spirit and will be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth such worshipers he seeketh and such he will accept Joh. 4. 23 24. A begger will be glad of your Almes though you leave it with an ill will because he needeth it but God hath no need of you nor of your service and therefore think not that he will accept you on such termes That people worshipeth God in vain that draw near him with their mouth and honour him with their lips when their heart is farre from him Mat. 15. 8 9. A mans heart is where his Love is rather then where his Fear is If you should lie still upon your knees or in the holy Assembly If you should be the strictest Observer of the Ordinances on the Lords daies and yet had such hearts in you as had rather let all these alone if it were not for fear of punishment it will all be disregarded and reckoned to you according to your wills as if it had never been done by you at all It 's Love that must win Love or make you fit for Love to entertain If you give your goods to the poor or your bodies to be burned in a cause that in it self is good and yet have not Love it availeth nothing 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3 5. You will not think your Wife hath conjugall affections that loveth another man better then you and had rather be gone from you if she could live without you It 's an unnatural Son that loves not his Father but had rather be from him then with him If God called you to a bestiall drugery or slavery he would then look but for your work and not care much whether you be willing or unwilling If your Ox draw your plow and your Horse carry his burden you care not much whether it be willingly or unwillingly Or if it be an enemy that you have to deal with you will look for no more then a forced submission or that he be disabled from doing you hurt But this is not your case It is a state of friendship that the Gospel calls you to you must be nigh to God his Children and the Members of his Sonne espoused to him in the dearest strongest bonds And do you think it is possible that this should be done without your wills and affections If you can be content with the Portion of a slave and an enemy then do your task and deny God your affections But if you look for the entertainment and Portion of a Friend a Child a Spouse you must bring the heart of a Friend and of a Child and of a Spouse Fear may do good by driving you to the use of means and taking out of your hands the things by which you would do your selves a mischief It may prepare you for saving Grace and when you are sanctified it will prove a necessary servant of Love to keep you in awe and save you from temptations But Love is the ruling affection in the sanctified and fear is therefore necessary because of the present imperfection of Love and because of the variety of temptations that here beset us Think not therefore that you are savingly renewed till God have your very hearts When you do but believe and tremble it is better then to be unbelieving and stupid and secure but you are not true Christians till you believe and Love We use to fly from that which we fear and therefore do apprehend it to be evil to us We avoid the presence and company of those that we are afraid of but we draw nigh them that we love and delight in their company We Fear an Enemy We Love a Friend We Fear the Devil naturally but we do not Love him It is Love that is that Affection of the soul that entertaineth God as God even as Good though that Love must be accompanied with a filial fear even a dread and reverence of his Majesty and greatness and a fear of displeasing him If you should toile out your selves in Religious duties with a heart that had rather forbear them if you durst you have not the hearts of Gods Children in your breasts The Magistrate can frighten men to the Congregation and outward worship You may lock a man in the Church that had rather be away And will any man think that this makes him acceptable to God You may keep a Theif from stealing by prison and irons but this makes him not accepted with God as a true man You may cure a man of cursing and swearing and railing and idle and ribbald talking even in a minute of an hour by cutting of his tongue but will God accept him ever the more as long as he hath a heart that would do it if he could There 's abundance of people at this day that are kept from abusing the Lords day and from swearing and stealing yea and from laying hands on all about them that are godly and this by the Law of man and the fear of present punishment And do you think that these are therefore innocent or acceptable with God By this account you may make the Devil a Saint when he is chained up from doing mischief You may as well say that a Lyon is become a Lamb when he is shut up in his Den Or that a mastiff Dog is become harmelss and gentle when he is muzled Believe it sirs you are
his own right hand in the Celestials farre above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and given him to be Head over all things to the Church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all Ephes. 1. 19. 20 21 22 23. Besides this even in the Works of Christ for his Church his Calling and Sanctifying and Ruling and Preserving them his subduing their Enemies and raising them from the dead and Glorifying them with himself how glorious is the very Power of God by his Sonne 2 Thes. 1. 11. Phil. 3. 10. Ephes. 3. 7 20. 2 Pet. 1. 3 16. 1 Cor. 4. 20. Ephes. 6. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 43. 1 Pet. 1. 5. And therefore his Gospel may well be called The Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1. 16. Which hath been the Instrument of his Power in doing such wonderful works in the world 1 Cor. 1. 18. 2. 5. 2 Cor. 6. 7. 2. Cor. 13. 3 4. 5. But the most sweet and conspicuous End of our Redemption was the Demonstration of Gods Love and Mercy to man-kind and that he might make known the Riches of his Glory on the vessels of Mercy prepared unto Glory Rom. 9. 23. Of all Gods Attributes there is none shineth more illustrously in the work of our Redemption than Love and Mercy Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3. 16. By the Creation and Sustentation of us we perceive the Love of God but more abundantly by our Redemption In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Sonne into the world that we might live through him 1 Joh. 4. 9. O wonderfull Love which condescendeth to such Rebels and embraceth such unworthy and polluted sinners and pittyeth them even in their blood Even after we had sold our selves to Satan and cast away the Mercies of our Creation and had all come short of the Glory of God and were sentenced to death and ready for the Execution then did this wonderful Love step in and rescue and recover us Not staying till we Repented and cryed for Mercy and cast our selves at his feet but seeking us in the Wilderness and finding us before we felt that we were lost and being found of us before we sought him and beging to us in the depth of our Misery Herein is Love not that we Loved God but that he Loved us and sent his Sonne to be the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Joh. 4. 10. Though God Love us not in our sinne and misery before our Conversion so far as in that state to Justifie us and Adopt us and take pleasure in us or have Communion with us in the spirit yet doth he so far Love us in that state as to Redeem us by the Blood of Christ and tender us his Salvation and to bring in his chosen effectually to entertain his offer And thus the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly And God commended his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5. 6 8. Greater Love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15. 13. What was the Sonne of God but Love Incarnate Love borne of a Virgin Love coming down from Heaven to Earth and walking in flesh among the miserable seeking and saving that which was lost Was it not Love that spoke those words of life those comfortable promises those necessary precepts those gracious encouragements which the Gospel doth abound with Was it not Love it self that went preaching Salvation to the Sonnes of death and deliverance to the Captives and offered to bind up the broken hearts Luke 4. 18 Was it not Love that invited the weary and heavy laden Matth. 11. 28 And that sent even to the high-waies and the hedges to compel men to come in that his house might be filled Matth. 22. 9 10. Luke 14. 23. Was it not Love it self that went up and down healing and doing good that suffered them for whom he suffered to scorn him and spit upon him and buffet him and condemn him that being reviled reviled not again that gave his life an offering for sinne and dyed and prayed for them that murdered him No wonder if the Gospel be it that teacheth us to call God by the name of Love it self 1 Joh. 4. 8 For it is the Gospel that hath most fully revealed him to be so No wonder if the Gospel do so frequently and importunatly require us to Love one another and even to lay down your lives for Christ and for one another when it hath given us such a ground and motive and president for our Love He that seeth the true face of Redemption and understandeth and savoureth the Gospel and the Grace of Christ must needs see most cogent Reasons for such dutyes 1 Joh. 4. 7 8 9 10 11 12. Beloved let us Love one another for Love is of God and every one that Loveth is born of God and knoweth God he that Loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love If God so Loved us we ought also to Love one another If we Love one another God dwelleth in us So 1 Joh. 3. 10 11 14 16 17 18. No wonder if by this Love we know that we are translated from death to life and if by it the Children of God be known from the Children of the Devil 1 Joh. 3. 10 11 14. For Love is the very Nature and Image of our Father No wonder if this be the New Commandment which had newly such a powerfull motive and president And no wonder if it be the great distinguishing Caracter by which all men shall know that we are the Disciples of Christ Joh. 13. 35. When he had set us such a Copie and taught us this lesson by such effectual means writing it out for us in lines of blood even of his own most pretious Blood and shedding it abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost But if we should come down to the particular benefits of Christ's death and see what Love is manifested in them even in our Calling our Justification our Adoption or Sanctification our Preservation and our everlasting Glorification we should find our selves in an Ocean that hath neither banks nor bottom and when we have fathomed as far as we can we must be contented to stand and admire it and to say with the Beloved Apostle Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! 1 Joh. 3. 1. And this is the blessed imployment of the Saints which they are called to by the Gospel to live in the participation and
in the dark and therefore we call you to the Law and to the Testimony and desire you to take our words into the light and see whether they be according to the Word of the Lord. Nothing troubleth us more then that we cannot perswade our hearers to this tryal Some of them are so hardened in their sinne and misery that they will not be at so much labour as to open their Bibles and try whether we say true or not Some of them will not trouble their minds with the thoughts of it Psal. 10 4. God is not in all their thoughts And some are already too wise to learn they will not so long abate their confidence of their former opinions though poor soules their ignorance doth threaten their damnation And some are so engaged in a sinfull party that their companions will not give them leave to make so much question of the way that they are in And some will scarce take the Scripture for the Rule by which they must try and be tryed but look more to custom and the will of those in power over them And most are unwilling to try because they are unwilling to know the truth and cannot endure to find themselves miserable nor see the sinne which they would not leave nor see the duty which they love not to practice And thus we cannot get them to try whether the things that we teach them be so For want of this it is that men deceive themselves and think their case to be safe when it is miserable because they will not try it by the Word This makes them rage and be confident in their folly Prov. 14. 16. and laugh and sing at the brink of Hell and swimme as merrily down the stream to the devouring gulf as if no evil were near them This makes them in the depth of misery to have no pitty on themselves and to do so little to escape it Though they have time and means and helps at hand yet there are not hearts in them to make use of them yea they runne themselves daily further on the score and all because we cannot get them to search the Scripture and try whether sinne be so small a matter and whether this will not be bitterness in the end Hence it is that they are so easily drawn by a temptation and that they dislike a holy life and have base thoughts of them that are most diligent for salvation and are most precious in the eyes of God and that they can even deride the way that they should walk in Prov. 1 22. Psal. 1. 2. because they will not search the Scripture to see what it saith to these matters The Word is a Light and would do much to open their eyes and winne them over to God if they would but come to it with a desire to know the truth You think that the ungodly that are rich and great are in a better condition then a godly man that is poor and despised And why is this but because you will not go into the Sanctuary and see in what a slippery place they stand and what will be the end of these men Psal. 73. 16 17 22. In a word this is the undoing of millions of souls They are all their life time out of the way to Heaven and yet will not be perswaded to ask the way but they runne on and wink and put it to the venture Many a thousand are gone out of the world before they ever spent the quantity of one day in trying by the Scripture whether their state were good and their way were right Nay let their Teachers tell them that they must be sanctified and take another course they will differ from their Teachers though they be never so wise or Learned and they will contradict them and not believe or regard them And yet we cannot get them to come to us and put the case to the tryal and let the Scripture be the jndge Would they but do this they could never sure have such hard thoughts of their Teachers and be offended at their plainest closest dealing You would then say I see now the Minister saies not this of himself he speaks but that which God commandeth him And if he would not deliver the Message of the Lord he were unworthy and unfit to be his Embassadour He were cruel to me if he would not pull me out of the fire by the plainest closest meanes Jud. 23. He hated me if he would not rebuke me but suffer sinne upon me Lev. 19. 17. If he would please men he should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. I know it is no pleasure to him to trouble me or to provoke me but it would be his own destruction if he tell me not of my danger Ezek. 3. 18. And I have no reason to wish him to damn his own soul and suffer me to do the like by mine and all for fear of displeasing me in my sinne These would be your thoughts if you would but try our words by the Scripture and see whether we speak not the mind of God And sure it would go somewhat deeper in your hearts and it would stick by you and be more before your eyes when you once understood that it is the Word of God This then is my request to you sirs that the work of your Conversion may not miscarry that you would carry all that you hear to the Scripture and search there and see whether it be so or not that so you may be put out of doubt and may be at a certainty and not stand wavering and that your Faith may be resolved into the Authority of God and so the work may be Divine and consequently powerfull and prevailing when the Ground and Motive is Divine If you be not satisfied in the Doctrine which the Minister delivereth to you first search the Scripture your selves and if that will not do go to him and desire him to shew you his grounds for it in the Word of God and joyn with you in Prayer for a right understanding of it Do you question whether there be so severe a judgment and a Heaven and a Hell as Ministers tell you Search the Scripture in Mat. 25. 2 Thes. 1. 8 9 10. Joh. 5. 29 Matth. 13. Do you question whether a man may not be saved without conversion regeneration and holyness Open your Bibles and see what God saith John 3. 3 6. Mal. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 12. 14. Do you think a man may be saved without Knowledge Let Scripture judge 2 Cor. 4 3 4. Joh. 17. 3. Hos. 4. 6. Do you think a man may be saved that doth as the most do and goeth in the common way of the world Search the Scripture and see Mat. 7. 13. and 20. 16. and 22. 14. Luke 12. 32. Do you think an unhumbled Soul may be saved that never was contrite and broken hearted for sin Try by Isa. 57. 15. and 66. 2.
how long his patience will yet endure you or what hour he will call away your Souls And if death come alas what a case will it find you in how lamentably unready are you to meet him how unready to appear before the dreadfull God whom you have offended and what a terrible appearance do you think that will be to you most certainly if you die before you are converted you will not be from among the Devils and damned souls an hour The Law hath cursed you already and the execution will be answerable if you die in your sins And thus you may see the gain of sin and what it is that you have been doing all this while for your own Souls and what a case it is that you have brought you selvs into and what need you have speedily to look about you 5. The next step of your Consideration should be this Bethink your selves what a blessed Condition you might be in if by Conversion you were but recovered from this misery and brought home to God This moved the heart of the Prodigall son to return Luke 15. 16 17. When he came to himself he said How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger He that had not husks to feed on with the swine considered the plenty that he had for saken at home The poorest member of the houshold of Christ is in a better condition then the greatest King on earth that is unconverted You might have lived another kinde of life then you have done for safety and benefit and true content if you would have turned your minds and life to God Were you but Converted you would be the living members of Christ and his precious benefits would be yours His blood would clense you from all your sins and they would be all freely forgiven you God would be Reconciled to to you and become your friend yea your Father and your God and will take you for his houshold servants and adopted children The Holy Ghost would dwell in you and guide your understandings and shew you that which flesh and blood connot reveal and bring you into acquaintance with the mysteries of God He will be a Spirit of Light and Life within you and work your hearts yet more to God and give you yet stronger inclinations and affections to the things above He will help you when you are weak and quicken you where you are dull and be your remembrancer when you are forgetfull of necessary things He will help you in prayer both for matter and for manner and help you in Meditation and conference and other duties He will warn you of your danger and strengthen you against temptations and cause you to overcome and if you fall he will cause you to rise again he will be an in-dwelling comforter to you and so effectually speak peace to you in the midst of your disquietness that by speaking it he will create it in you And in the multitude of your thoughts within you his comforts will delight your Souls O what a life might you live if Christ by his Spirit did once live in you you may easily conjecture how tender Christ would be of his own members how dearly he would love them how constantly he would watch over them how plentifully he would provide for them and how safely he would preserve them And if you should come into a rougher way he would lead you out Afflictions should never be laid on you but for your good and continue no longer then your need continueth them and be taken off at last to your satisfaction and contentment Indeed your life would be a life of mercies and that which is but a common Mercy to common men would be a speciall Mercy to you as coming from your Fathers love and furthering you salvation and hinting out to you your everlasting Mercies You could not open your eyes but you would see that which may encourage and comfort you all the works of God which you behold would shew you his Majesty his love and power and lead you to himself You could not open your Bible but you would find in it the blessed lines of Love O what good it would do you to read there the blessed Attributes of your God! to look upon his Name to peruse the description of his most perfect nature what good would it do you to read of the nature and incarnation and life and death and resurrection and assension and intercession and return of your blessed Redeemer what good would it do you to find those holy Rules which your new nature is agreeable to and to read over the Law that is written in your hearts and read the curse from which you are delivered what life and joy would your Souls receive from the many and full and free promises of grace were you once but truly sanctified and made new your condition would be often comfortable but alwaies safe and when you were in the greatest fears and perplexities you would still be fast in the armes of Christ And what a life would that be to have daily access to God in prayer to have leave in all your wants and dangers to seek to him with a promise of hearing and success that you may be sure of much more from him then a child can from the tenderest father or a wife from the most loving husband upon earth What a life would it be when you may alwaies think on God as your felicity and fetch your higehest delights from him from whom the ungodly have their greatest terrours And it is no contemptible part of your benefits that you may live among his people and in their speciall love and have a speciall Communion with them and interest in their prayers may possess among them the priviledges of the Saints and the Ordinances of God That in stead of idle talk and the unprofitable fellowship of the children and works of darkness you may joyne with the Church of God in his Praises and feed with them at his table on the body and blood of Christ and then have conveyances of renewed grace and a renewed pardon sealed to your Souls But how long should I stay if I should tell you but one half the blessings of a Sanctified and spirituall state In a word God would be yours Christ would be yours the Holy Ghost would be yours all things would be yours the whole world would have some relation to your wellfare Devils would be subdued to you and cast out of your Soules sinne would be both pardoned and overcome Angels would be ministring spirits unto you for your good The promises of Scripture would be yours and everlasting Glory would at last be yours and while you staid on earth you might comfort your selves as oft as you would with the believing foresight of that unconceiveable unspeakable endless felicity O sirs what a treasure have I here expressed in a few words what hearts would you have if they
himself to hope that God will save him without so much adoe which by the help of the Devil he may easily be brought to hope away then goes the duty If you could not shew him that there is a Necessity of Family Prayer and a Necessity of sanctifying the Lords Day and a Necessity of forsaking his tipling and voluptuousness and a Necessity of living a heavenly life he would quickly resolve of another course For he had rather do otherwise if he durst He never was Religious from a true Predominant Love to God and a holy life but for fear of Hell and for other inferiour respects Remember this when you have precious opportunities before you of doing or receiving good and when you see that you have leave to take these opportunities and yet you draw back and are questioning How we can prove it to be your duty or that you cannot be saved without it Do not these Questions plainly shew that you Love not the work and Delight not in a holy life and that you had rather let it alone Are you not blind if you see not this is in your selves Yea it 's plain that you have such an aversness or hatred to God and a holy course of life that if you did but know what shift to make to scape damnation you would fly away from God and Holiness and have as little to do with them as you can Your Questions and Cavils do plainly declare this wicked emnity and backwardness of your hearts and consequently shew how farre you are from true Conversion Not that I am of their mind that think there is any Good which the Law of Christ Obligeth us not to accept and which we can refuse without sinne and danger to our selves For God doth both draw us and drive us at once But when the Threatning and Punishment only can prevail with men and men Love not God and Godliness for themselves but had rather have liberty to live as the ungodly I shall never take one of these for a sanctified man nor have any hope of the saving of such a soul how farre soever his fears may carry him from his outward sinnes or to outward duties Till God shall give him a better Conversion then this I say I have not the smallest hope of this mans salvation Then you are Gods Children when the Honour the Work the Family the Name of your Father are lovely and delightfull to you And when you grieve that there is any remnants of sin in your souls and when your sinnes are to you as lameness to the lame that pain them every step they go and as sickness to the sick that makes them groan and groan again and long to be rid of it And when you think those the happiest men on earth that are the most holy and wish from your hearts that you were such as they though you had not a house to put your head in When you look towards God with longing thoughts and are grieved that your understandings can reach no nearer him and know no more of him and that your hearts cannot embrace him with a more burning Love When you admire the beauty of a meek a patient a mortified spirituall heavenly mind and long to have more of this your self yea to be perfect in all Holiness and Obedâ—ence When your hearts are thus brought over to God that you had rather have him then any other and rather live in his Family then any where and rather walk in his waies then in any then are you indeed Converted and never till then whatever other dispositions you may have And now if that were my business what abundance of reason might I shew you to make you willing to come over unto God with Love and with Delight Whom else can you Love if he that is Love it self seem not lovely to you All loveliness is in him and from him The creature hath none of it self nor for it self To Love a life of sinne is to Love the Image and Service of the Devil and to Love that which feeds the flames of Hell What is it then to Love this sinne so well as for the Love of it to fly from God and Godliness Methinks men at the worst should Love that which will do them good and not preferre that before it which will hurt them Do sinners indeed believe that God and Holiness will do them hurt and that sinne will do them greater good Is there ever a man so mad that he dare speak this and stand to it If indeed you think it best to live in sinne and therefore had rather keep it then leave it your understandings are befooled I had almost used Paul's Phrase and said bewitched Gal. 3. 1. Will it do you any hurt to leave your beastly sensual lives and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ This is the Doctrine of Saving Grace Tit. 2. 11 12 13. Would it do you any harm to be assured of Salvation and ready to die and to know that the Angels shall Conduct your departing souls to Christ and that you shall live in Joy with him for ever Or to be employed in those holy works that must prepare you for this day and help you to this assurance If God be naught for you if Holiness and Righteousness and Temperance be naught for you then you may as well say Heaven is naught for you and therefore you must resolve for sinne and Hell and see whether that be good for you I shall say no more of this Point because I have written of it already in the Conclusion of the Saints Rest which I desire you to peruse DIRECT XI The next part of my Advice is If you would not have this Saving Work misearry Turn then this present day and hour without any more Delay Somewhat I have spoke of this already and therefore shall say the less But yet I shall back this Direction with such Reasons as will certainly convince you if you be not unreasonable of the folly of Delay and shew you that it concerneth you presently to Return And though my Reasons will be numerous it is not the Number but the Strength of them that I shall urge you principally to Consider and because of the Number I will go over them with the greater brevity 1. Consider to whom it is that you are commanded to Turn and then tell me whether there can be any Reason for delay It is not to an empty deceitfull creature but to the faithfull All-sufficient God To him that is the cause of all things the Strength of the Creation the Joy of Angels the Felicity of the Saints the Sun and Shield of all the Righteous and Refuge of the Distressed and the Glory of the whole World Of such Power that his Word can take down the Sun from the Firmament and turn the